ATTY GEN. ASHCROFT: Today I have the privilege of announcing four Department
of Justice initiatives designed to
reduce and punish gun crime.

The first three initiatives are further steps in our continuing effort to
improve the National Instant Criminal Background
Check System, known as the NICS system, as we try to bar access to firearms
by felons, by illegal aliens, and by others who
cannot legally own firearms.

The fourth initiative is a new tool, Project Sentry, to strengthen our ability
to prevent and punish gun crimes in our schools.

The NICS background check system was established in 1994 to ensure that those
who purchase firearms are first subject
to a background check. Since I became attorney general, we have looked at ways
to improve the accuracy and efficiency of
the NICS system. Today I am announcing three improvements to the NICS system.

First, I'm instructing the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Immigration
and Naturalization Service to use the National
Instant Criminal Background Check System, or NICS, to deny gun transfers to
those aliens who are prohibited from
purchasing guns.

Federal gun laws prohibit illegal aliens from receiving or possessing guns
and ammunition. Unfortunately, NICS was not
designed in 1994 to determine whether prospective purchasers are prohibited
aliens. Despite the fact that all prospective gun
purchasers are asked for their citizenship at the time of purchase, currently
most aliens are not checked against INS databases
to determine if they are legally in the United States.

Today I am directing the FBI, which administers the NICS program, to work
with the Immigration and Naturalization
Service to check the immigration status of all non-citizens who are prospective
gun purchasers. From this day forward, when a
federally licensed firearm dealer places a call to the NICS system, the FBI
will ask whether the prospective buyer is a citizen. If
he or she is not, the call will be referred to the INS. The INS will search
all of its databases to determine whether the alien is
illegally or unlawfully in the United States. These more thorough procedures
will help ensure that guns do not fall into the hands
of illegal aliens. Illegal aliens who seek to buy guns unlawfully will be prosecuted
to the fullest extent of the law.

As part of this first directive, I am also directing the FBI and the INS to
take all appropriate steps to investigate any
violations of law associated with an illegal alien's attempt to purchase a firearm.

Where the NICS inquiry or NICS system determines that a purchase would be
denied because the buyer is an illegal alien,
the matter will be referred to investigators, who will examine whether the alien
has made a false statement in violation of federal
criminal law.

If aliens have made false statements or a false statement in their attempted
purchase, we will prosecute those individuals for
those false statements. And we will take steps necessary to remove from this
country illegal aliens who attempt to purchase
guns unlawfully. Where the NICS system determines that a purchase should be
denied because the buyer is an illegal alien,
records of the request and denial will be referred to INS investigators to initiate
appropriate removal proceedings.

My second announcement today is that I am instructing the FBI to take steps
to ensure that NICS background checks are
able to determine more thoroughly and efficiently whether a prospective gun
buyer is entitled to obtain firearms. Under the new
system, calls that have previously been delayed calls will be routed immediately
to a legal instruments examiner. The examiner
will be able to review the gun buyer's full criminal history while on the phone
with the dealer, and in many cases will be able to
notify the dealer at once whether the transaction may be completed. The new
system will increase the precision of proceed
determinations while decreasing the number of delayed resolutions that increase
the risk of firearms being turned over to a
prohibited person. This improvement will increases the same-call resolution
of the transactions from its current rate of 71
percent to 90 percent, so that we'll have higher accuracy and will resolve the
issues in the context of the call with that higher
rate of accuracy.

The third NICS-related improvement today that I announce is our continued
effort to assist states in updating their criminal
history records upon which the NICS system relies. NICS background checks are
only as accurate as the criminal history
records on which they are based. One of the things that we have discovered in
our review of the NICS system is that a number
of states need to improve their criminal history records, especially records
relating to mental illness adjudications and final
dispositions of arrest charges.

Many states lack the expertise or the resources that are necessary to transfer
written documents into easily accessible
computer databases upon which the NICS system relies. As a result, the NICS
system occasionally locates a record that
contains an arrest for an offense that would disqualify the individual from
possessing firearms but is unable to determine how
state prosecutors or courts disposed of the charges. This increases the risk
that a firearm may be transferred to a prohibited
person.

On June the 28th of last year I ordered the Bureau of Justice Statistics to
conduct a study of incomplete state criminal
history records. Today the bureau has announced its preliminary findings. Based
on the bureau's report, we will allocate $141
million to the National Criminal History Improvement Program, or NCHIP, over
the next three fiscal years. These funds will be
directed to ensuring that state courts improve their reporting of case dispositions.
In addition, states may use the funds to
automate older criminal history records. Further, in addition to the $40 million
appropriated for NCHIP in fiscal year 2001, the
president's proposed budgets will provide the program with $38 million in 2002
and $63 million in 2003. These funds will help
make our records more complete and more accurate. These three initiatives together
will increase the accuracy and efficiency
of the NICS system in ensuring that we protect Americans by keeping guns out
of the wrong hands.

Finally, I am pleased to announce that the Justice Department is undertaking
a new initiative as part of our Project Safe
Neighborhoods, this initiative known as Project Sentry. Project Sentry is a
vital federal-state project dedicated to prosecuting
gun crimes committed at our nation's schools and dedicated to protecting juveniles
from gun crime. The president has
emphasized that America's war on terrorism must involve the combined resources
of federal, state and local governments.
Project Sentry applies the same approach to the problem of school-related gun
violence. The initiative will provide every
United States attorney's office in the country -- and that's a total of 94 U.S.
attorneys offices -- with a new prosecutor who will
serve as a Project Sentry coordinator. Each Project Sentry coordinator will
help facilitate partnerships between federal, state
and tribal governments. The resulting safe school task forces, which will involve
law enforcement, community groups and
schools, will help prosecute and supervise juveniles who violate federal and
state firearms laws, will prosecute adults who
illegally provide firearms to juveniles, and will promote school safety through
community outreach efforts. This administration is
committed to providing the resources needed to make Project Sentry a success.

In addition to the $9 million that will be necessary to hire the Project Sentry
coordinators, the Department of Justice is
allocating $20 million to help fund the partnerships. The $20 million will be
drawn from existing resources in the
Community-Oriented Policing Services program, known as COPS, and from the Office
of Juvenile Justice grants.

One of the most important features of Project Sentry is its emphasis not just
on prosecutions, but on protecting juveniles
from gun crime. Later today I'll be attending a meeting of educators, school
administrators and public safety personnel, a
meeting sponsored by the Department of Education and other federal agencies.
It's a meeting that will address how to help
schools prepare for and respond to terrorist attacks. The participants have
come from a number of countries, including Israel,
Canada, Japan and Ireland. All of these countries are joining together to share
their experiences and discuss techniques for
securing the safety of their schools in the wake of terrorism -- terrorist attacks
and other criminal violence.

This Department of Justice is dedicated to improving the tools that we have
to reduce criminal access to guns, prosecuting
those who violate our nation's gun laws, and ensuring a safe learning environment
for our children.

These four steps announced today will assist us in achieving these goals.

Thank you.

Yes, sir?

Q Mr. Ashcroft, have you gotten any credible leads in response to the FBI
warning the other night? And what can you tell
us about the two men detained near the Pentagon?

ATTY GEN. ASHCROFT: The individuals detained near the Pentagon have been the
subject of affidavits filed with the
courts. I think it's rather complete, those affidavits, and I would refer you
to those. We won't be making statements in addition
to the court pleadings or proceedings. But I think there's a rather thorough
account in what I would consider to be a narrative
affidavit of the courts there.

I'm not in a position to announce any specific leads from the alert issued
by the FBI. I know that there have been individuals
who have provided information, but I'm not sure the extent to which that information
has proved to be useful.

Yes, sir?

Q Attorney General, has the alert gotten any more specific? There's a feeling,
though people aren't saying so, that the alert is
more pertinent to U.S. facilities outside the United States than inside the
United States. Is it still worldwide, both domestic and
foreign, or has the alert become more specific?

ATTY GEN. ASHCROFT: We have not refined the alert to narrow its focus. The
alert was issued, it regarded a rather
specific time interval, and we felt that it contained the kind of information
with which -- which we ought to share with both the
American people and individuals around the world who would seek to assist us
in curtailing terrorism. This administration
believes that the public plays a very important role in protecting this culture
and other cultures from terrorist attacks. And
frankly, we commend members of the public who have been helpful. The alert was
shared publicly with that in mind.

Yes? I think I saw a hand over there.

Q Since the alert has been issued, we've seen some indications that law enforcement
assets have been shifted around the
country in the last 48 hours; for example, the shifting of FBI special agents
in and out of Salt Lake. Can you comment at all
about movement of personnel, maybe location or numbers of people moving?

ATTY GEN. ASHCROFT: You know how clearly we have intended and carefully we
have planned to make the Olympics
a secure environment. We will continue to do everything possible to make the
Olympics a secure environment. We believe that
that is being done and are grateful for the way in which the Olympics have been
conducted. I think it would be inappropriate, as
staff from one time and another is either relieved or redirected, to draw conclusions
based on those matters.

Yes, sir?

Q Have you cleared Lofti Raissi of any suspicion regarding the September 11th
attacks? And if so, or if that suspicion has
waned at all, can you say why he was held so long?

ATTY GEN. ASHCROFT: First of all, let me thank our counterparts in Great Britain
for their cooperation in every respect
as it's related to the conduct of the investigation following September the
11th.

I'm not in a position to make a comment about any other circumstances relating
to Mr. Raissi.

Yes, sir?

Q On the same subject, though, Attorney General, the judge did say yesterday
that there is no likelihood of terrorism
charges being brought against him in the near future. How far would you accept
the judge's determination?

ATTY GEN. ASHCROFT: Well, I'll let the judge speak for himself. It's not the
custom of this department to prognosticate
on the potential of charges. If we do file charges, they would be announced,
and the papers providing the basis for the charge
would be filed with the court and also provide the basis for information regarding
the charges.

Yes, sir?

Q General, the gun control group -- back of the gun issue -- have been critical
of the Justice Department previously for not
allowing the FBI to search purchase records against the list of the detainees
post-September 11th. Do any of these proposals
deal with that at all? Will you be able to retroactively go back and do those
kind of searches, or is that not addressed here?

ATTY GEN. ASHCROFT: We believe that the utilization of purchase records for
purposes other than the auditing of the
system is prohibited by the Brady Law, which was enacted in 1994. And for us
to contravene that would be inappropriate.
This department considers living within the limits of the law as one of its
primary responsibilities.

Yes, sir?

Q To follow up, would you consider any changes to the law that would allow
you to do that? That was another thing that
was being called for.

ATTY GEN. ASHCROFT: There are individuals in the Congress who are working
to provide a variety of ways of making
sure that we provide additional safety, and this department is always open to
individuals and to proposals that we believe
consistent with the rights expressed in the Constitution to safeguard the safety
and security of individuals here in the country.